Reading and Social Emotional Development

Did you know that in order to move through different reading levels, students are asked to retell the story in their own words?

Story retell is incredibly important to help students access their full reading potential.  It’s also important socially and emotionally to be able to talk about their lives, their stories, their weekend, personal anecdotes, their family, and the things they care the most about. 

This week in the teletherapy world, my students watched wordless short films and videos of wordless picture books. They gave the characters voice through perspective taking, dialogue, problem-solving and narrative

We did a mini-lesson about retelling stories. I gave them sentence starters, visuals to remind them about story elements, and I target a skill (character development, dialogue, problem, solution, feelings, etc.)  I asked them questions about the story, but mainly just as prompts to get them thinking and talking.

“I wonder, why, what, where, who might, what might…” 

“What might they be saying here?”  Practice dialogue in stories, She said, “...” 

“I wonder how they feel at that moment?” 

“What’s a different way that story could have ended?” 

“What would you have done?” 

“I wonder why…”

The past few weeks we watched:

Chalk by Bill Thomson 

Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry

Scarlett Aida Rivero Osejo Short Film by Studio NYC

Bao by Domee Shi 

What books and films do you like to use in therapy?